1. Technical Field
The present application pertains to a method and apparatus for the cleaning of containers such as plastic bottles in a bottle filling plant or containers in a container filling plant.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine Closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
The sterilization of packaging containers of the type used in the food and beverage industry, for example, is becoming increasingly important because a long shelf life of the contents of the container without the addition of preservatives or a subsequent treatment, e.g. by pasteurization, is becoming increasingly unattractive on account of its negative effect on the packaged product.
To prevent, restrict, and/or minimize this, for example, aseptic filling machines are used to fill bottles. For this purpose, the entire bottling plant or a portion of the bottling plant may be operated in a sterile environment. To achieve this sterile environment, the plant may be enclosed in a housing, the interior is sterilized and kept as sterile as possible, and steps are taken to essentially ensure or promote that the air and all or most other substances that are introduced into the interior are practically sterile. An essential component of this process is also that the interior of the containers to be filled are also sterilized.
Containers, for example beverage bottles, cans, medicament or medicine bottles, or medicament or medicine cans, must or should often be sterilized prior to filling so as to prevent, restrict, and/or minimize the material to be filled from spoiling or going bad. In the cooperation with the aseptic treatment installations or aseptic treatment stations and the filling installations or filling stations, filling of the containers can occur thus under clean room or clean space conditions by means of which a subsequent sterilization, e.g. by heating of the container together with the container contents, can be avoided, restricted, and/or minimized, which is desirable under certain circumstances as pertains to the quality and/or the taste of the filling material or the bottled material.
Some methods for the sterilization of bottles, cans or similar containers make use of a sterilization medium comprising hydrogen peroxide, i.e., make use of a sterilization medium (hereinafter also hydrogen peroxide sterilization medium) which comprises hydrogen peroxide in mixture with hot sterile air. In these methods, which for example are used for sterilizing of containers for beverages, but also for sterilizing containers or packages for other products, such as medicaments, when the hot hydrogen peroxide sterilization medium is brought onto the inner surface of the colder container a hydrogen peroxide condensation film is formed by condensation and this is then activated in a following activation phase by introducing a sterile hot gaseous and/or vaporous activation medium, such as by introducing hot sterile air, so that oxygen free radicals are produced by the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide and these react with the germs and impurities present to sterilize the container.
In these methods the sterile air used as activation medium may be heated to the activation temperature by conducting it through a heat exchanger heated to a temperature between one hundred thirty degrees Celsius and one hundred fifty degrees Celsius. Then, in a step following the activation phase, the containers are blown upon and cooled down with the sterile air, which is supplied to the container at a temperature distinctly below the activation temperature. For this, the sterile air is taken at a correspondingly high volume flow through the heat exchanger, preventing it from becoming heated to the activation temperature.
Furthermore, some methods and devices treat bottles or such containers with a hot treatment medium, which is introduced into the containers. Thanks to temperature sensors, the temperature of the containers is detected before and after the heat treatment, or the temperature of the treatment medium flowing back out, and the temperature of the hot treatment medium and/or the intensity of the treatment is controlled as a function of the measured temperatures. No treatment with a treatment medium comprising hydrogen peroxide is mentioned.